From the Editor

A highlight of this issue is an article by Adam Frank, the latest winner of our Forum's Burton award "For multi-channel promotion of public understanding of physics, of science in general, and of the relationship between science and society, using methods and venues that effectively engage and provoke discussion among policy makers, scientists, and the public regarding important issues." This continues my policy of asking our prizewinners to write an article for the newsletter.

Over the past twenty years it has become the custom, for good or for bad to evaluate scientists using numerical indices. The most famous of these is the H-index. We have an article in this issue by the very inventor of this index, Jorge Hirsch, discussing some of the unintended and intended consequences of his invention. Many years ago, Jorge and I were co-authors in a couple of papers. Alas, these papers did not gather a number of citations large enough to contribute to my H-index, or to his own.

There are two more articles, one of which replies (in part) to an article that appeared in the October issue. My hopes to stir more controversy are perhaps beginning to bear success.

More contributions from our general readership are always welcome. Articles and suggestions for articles should be sent to me, and also letters to the editor. Book reviews should go to the reviews editor directly (ahobson@uark.edu). Content is not peer reviewed and opinions given are the author’s only, not necessarily mine, nor the Forum’s or, a fortiori, not the APS’s either. I am very open as to what is appropriate.

Oriol

Oriol T. Valls
University of Minnesota
otvalls@umn.edu

These contributions have not been peer-refereed. They represent solely the view(s) of the author(s) and not necessarily the view of APS.